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Whitney grew up in New York City and was initially interested in Computer Science, loves writing but missed technology and discovered HCI at Carnegie Mellon. Whitney talks about core principles for all of the work we do, underscoring the need for UX practitioners to become better negotiators and persuaders; and to focus on helping the organization become better at identifying areas of opportunity for our customers.

Quotes

“…one of the core tenets of the HCI program at Carnegie Mellon is this mantra… ‘the user is not like me’. As I got to know other practitioners in the broader community, there are some philosophical similarities between us no matter how we approach the work or what our educational backgrounds are… I became fascinated with those principles [about which we all] agree… the core principles for all of the work we do …mobile, web [regardless of] the context…”

“Think about User Experience as the way in which an organization operates and have it being core to its ethos… understanding how to be a great negotiator and great persuader… we often lack confidence in selling those ideas to the higher-ups within our organization as well as to other departments who are not in the trenches with us everyday.”

“We need to have a hand in not only designing the product but in defining what the product is, so that really does make us product strategists in a lot of ways… [we] need to be involved in the process a lot earlier than many of us currently are… understand the business needs and be able to communicate with the product folks as well as executives in the organization.”